429 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

YOUCAT Lesson 429

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

429  What rules apply to intellectual property?

The misappropriation of intellectual property is theft also.  [2408-2409]

"World copyright terms" by Balfour Smith, Canuckguy, Badseed. - Original image by Balfour Smith at Duke. ….. 429

Not just plagiarism is theft.  The theft of intellectual property begins with copying other students’ work in school, continues in the illegal taking of materials from the Internet, applies to the making of unauthorized copies or trafficking in pirated copies in various media, and extends to business dealings in stolen concepts and ideas.  Every acquisition of someone else’s intellectual property demands the free consent and appropriate remuneration of the author or inventor.

Plagiarism (from Latin plagiaries=kidnapper).  Plagiarism is the unauthorized and concealed appropriation of someone else’s intellectual property, which is made out to be one’s own intellectual achievement.

[2408-2409]

Respect for the goods of others

2408 The seventh commandment forbids theft, that is, usurping another's property against the reasonable will of the owner. There is no theft if consent can be presumed or if refusal is contrary to reason and the universal destination of goods. This is the case in obvious and urgent necessity when the only way to provide for immediate, essential needs (food, shelter, clothing . . .) is to put at one's disposal and use the property of others. (Compare Gaudium et Spes 69 § 1.)¹⁹¹ –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

2409 Even if it does not contradict the provisions of civil law, any form of unjustly taking and keeping the property of others is against the seventh commandment: thus, deliberate retention of goods lent or of objects lost; business fraud; paying unjust wages; forcing up prices by taking advantage of the ignorance or hardship of another. (Compare Deuteronomy 25:13-16; Deut 24:14-15; James 5:4; Amos 8:4-6.)¹⁹² --CCC